Contents

Egg Timer

There are four basic types of timers: count down timers, lap timers, chess/task timers and alarms.

Count Down Timers

Count down timers are used to tell you when the pizza is done, when it's time to change the laundry, when you've been staring at your computer screen for too long, et cetera. They're generally called "egg timers". To be useful, the basic functions must be quick and easy to use: mostly a single click.

Basic functions:

set a timer length

pause/restart

clear

start the timer with the previously elapsed time

add or subtract a small increment of time

The best egg timer interface I have run across is 1TouchTimer for the Palm Pilot.

Lap Timers

The most important feature is an incrementing timer display with as big a font as possible. There is also a log of the time between successive presses of the lap buttons.

I haven't looked at a lot of lap timers, but the best for the palm pilot seems to be Parallel Lap.

I started to write a small application that most closely resembles to the lap timer idea. It is already available (with source code) at this page. I am gonna look at all the other ideas listed on this page - but do not hesitate to elaborate on this first attempt. --Rodolphe.ortalo 23:22, 25 July 2007 (CEST)

Chess Timers

Chess timers are used to divide time up into tasks. A "real" chess timer only has two tasks, but these are typically used to measure how long is spent on various activities. They can get very sophisticated because they are often used for billing customers.

Alarms

These timers ring the alarm at a specific time, rather than after a specific interval. Presumably they will be handled well by the Calendar app.

Personal tools

Egg Timer

There are four basic types of timers: count down timers, lap timers, chess/task timers and alarms.

Count Down Timers

Count down timers are used to tell you when the pizza is done, when it's time to change the laundry, when you've been staring at your computer screen for too long, et cetera. They're generally called "egg timers". To be useful, the basic functions must be quick and easy to use: mostly a single click.

Basic functions:

set a timer length

pause/restart

clear

start the timer with the previously elapsed time

add or subtract a small increment of time

The best egg timer interface I have run across is 1TouchTimer for the Palm Pilot.

Lap Timers

The most important feature is an incrementing timer display with as big a font as possible. There is also a log of the time between successive presses of the lap buttons.

I haven't looked at a lot of lap timers, but the best for the palm pilot seems to be Parallel Lap.

I started to write a small application that most closely resembles to the lap timer idea. It is already available (with source code) at this page. I am gonna look at all the other ideas listed on this page - but do not hesitate to elaborate on this first attempt. --Rodolphe.ortalo 23:22, 25 July 2007 (CEST)

Chess Timers

Chess timers are used to divide time up into tasks. A "real" chess timer only has two tasks, but these are typically used to measure how long is spent on various activities. They can get very sophisticated because they are often used for billing customers.

Alarms

These timers ring the alarm at a specific time, rather than after a specific interval. Presumably they will be handled well by the Calendar app.